Haunted house wows Orland Park
ORLAND PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- In a quiet Orland Park neighborhood, on an average street, listen closely and you just might hear screams in the distance.
Welcome to the Shurley House of the Dead!
"Since I've been very small, I've always loved Halloween. And my husband unfortunately had to like my hobby with me," jokes Yvonne Shurley in her driveway.
The scene behind her suggests "hobby" might be an understatement. Every year Shurley and her husband Ralph redefine "'til death do us part."
Skeletons line their home's walkway and corpses shake violently in the yard.
Animatrons are scattered across the lawn, bang against a tower's window, and guard the front door.
Then there are the living performers-10 of them dipping into the after-life while caged in by a pop-up fence.
"Two crypts, a tower, two entrance ways," lists Ralph Shurley before Yvonne reminds him of the "projections."
Yes-projections, floating in the windows. There are more animatrons keeping warm inside. Plus a cemetery on the garage doors, with a few jokes etched into tombstones.
"We have laughs, we have scares, we have screams. We have it all here," Yvonne Shurley beamed.
The couple jokes they've even scared a little boy out of his shoes-which are still available for pickup at the end of the driveway.
The Shurleys have grown this haunted empire over the past 15 years, welcoming the public to their home and shaking things up each Halloween.
This year, there's a new 9-foot T-Rex with a voracious appetite, given away by the dismembered arm in its mouth.
There's so much spooky stuff that the Shurleys need a storage unit to hold it year-round. Their attention to detail: eye-popping. Fog rolls through the yard, music pierces the air and eerie lights leave visitors disoriented.
It seems like an awful lot of hassle. But Yvonne Shurley gives it her all, "because I can... that's why," she chuckles.
Come check out the Shurley House of the Dead for yourself. It's at 17404 Deer Creek Drive in Orland Park, Illinois. The haunting runs through Halloween.
